Issues: traffic

The road in from of my home does not drain water. There is water building up for approx 100ft and stretched out to the yellow line in the middle of the road. When cars drive by they are crossing over into the other lane to avoid hrdyo planing or ice. When they do this there is oncoming traffic that is blind to them due to a hill sloping down and the two cars cannot see each other until it is too late. The water and ice is also eating away my driveway and starting to do the same to my neighbors. The water and Ice building up is a major safety issue and will need to be addressed or major accident is sure to occur. I have taken a picture of this issue after a mild rain we had in the fall so you can see what I am trying to describe. You can see how the street dips down and you can not see on coming traffic. This was a light rain that cuased this water build up. During a heavy rain is crosses the middle of the road. Thanks for help with this! Jay and Michele Tolo

Anyone who travels through this intersection knows how bad this road is. The road was never properly marked out, there are two traffic lights facing down the large hill. There is a straight lane and a right turn lane. But there is no yellow or white line seperating the lanes. Not only that but the single (what should be double) lane is not wide enough for two cars to be side by side. The right hand side of the road is destroyed full of at least 20 heaves (tall short bumps one after the other). I constantly see people trying to sneak by on the right going up a large hill when there is a line of traffic down to the bridge, waiting at a red to go straight. This adds to how dangerous this intersection is. They widened this road about two years ago but never finished! Not only is it not marked out but its still not wide enough. They also came back and half-assed fixed the bumps only for them to come back again even worse. Who is in charge of this?!

In cold weather, ice tends to form near the exit of the car wash parking lot on the corner of Route 5 and South Water Street. Vehicles shed excess water as they leave the parking lot, creating a dangerous ice condition. In one instance, at least one vehicle ended up sliding into the opposite lane with oncoming traffic. Very dangerous.

The car wash should apply sand or salt at the parking lot exits, require people to use the dryer after they wash their cars, or just close the whole car wash during the winter.

Thanks for reporting your issue. I had a photographer visit the location this week to watch for the problem. While it was quite cold that day, the sun was shining and we didn't find any ice.

That's not to say that the problem doesn't exist, however. Perhaps it matters more based on the type of vehicle - such as a pickup or other truck that may collect a large amount of water in a flatbed, which might then slosh out as the vehicle leaves the lot.

I'm not sure if it's something the town can do anything about, because it doesn't appear to be a constant problem.

In the short term, the person you want to reach at Enfield PD is Sgt. Charles Grasso, 860-763-6400. Grasso and the Enfield PD are participants with Metro Traffic Services, which is an effort to pool resources from various police departments in the area to target specific traffic areas for enforcement. Give him a call.